1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to data control in manufacturing environments and, more particularly, to systems and methods for backing up control programs in manufacturing environments.
2. Description of Related Art
As manufacturing methods have become more advanced and automated, the number of dedicated local operating programs for programmable logic controllers and robotic systems have increased dramatically. In modern factories, the number of PLCs and robotic systems that have locally resident programs may number in the hundreds.
Conventionally, in order to preserve data integrity in the case of technical problems or mechanical failure, it is necessary to back-up each of the local programs so that the programs can be restored, when necessary. As the programs or operating procedures may be changed or modified periodically, maintaining a current version of the program or operating procedures is logistically difficult. Moreover, it is rather difficult to ensure that any of the backed-up programs is the latest version of the operating procedure or program when such backed-up program must be reinstalled or restored. Therefore, there is significant risk that the restored program will be an out-of-date version of the operating program, and may cause problems.
Therefore, there exists a need in the art for a method and system to facilitate backing-up of PLCs and robotic systems in a manufacturing environment. There further exists a need in the art for a method of systematically backing up and restoring programs and operating procedures in manufacturing environments.